Letters: Preserve Battlefield History

There are those that say the Institute for Advanced Study should be commended for the sensitivity and concern presented in its proposed building project for faculty housing on the historically significant property adjacent to present Battlefield Park.

However, with all due respect to those individuals, I have to differ. I see in this proposed project complete insensitivity and a disregard to the human events that occurred on this property that fateful January morning in 1777. Human events that would lead to a victory, that in time would lead to the freedoms and the way of life that I and my fellow Americans, including the Institute for Advanced Study, enjoy today.

Without question, there is enough academic opinion and study that contradicts the opinion that a major part of the engagement that January morning did not occur on this property. The number of historical and preservation groups that agree can not be denied. As well, we must be reminded that one such group, because of currents events, has placed this area on its List of Most Endangered Historic Places.

To put it simply, we can choose to step aside and allow those in the name of progress to build and stifle our history or we can choose to memorialize American sacrifice and protect the sites so important to our heritage and our story. I choose the latter and I ask and hope that the Princeton Planning Board will do the same.